Cakes Galore

I'm back from France, done with my externship (woohoo!) and beginning my career. (sort of)
I'll probably touch more on that later.

But for now, I got an itch to bake some cakes yesterday. One for my brothers belated birthday celebration and the second because my mom found her angel food cake pan in the garage recently and I couldn't not make an angel food cake knowing this information.

I LOVE angel food cake.

I made one in my Baking and Pastry class back in culinary school and it turned out absolutely perfect. I even received praise from my picky Chef for its delightful texture and crispy crust. I dream about that cake. My second attempt was a failure that I quickly blamed on my Dad's faulty oven, but something tells me I wasn't fully present during the production. Yesterday was my third attempt and though not completely disappointing, I didn't beam with joy when I saw the results. Too flat, the edges weren't crunchy enough and the flavor wasn't up to par. I need help. Maybe it's the lack of measuring (I didn't use a scale, forgive me) or the non-convection oven I used. Whatever it is I want it fixed because I don't think I can handle seeing another imperfect angel food cake. If you have advice I could use it. (Lisa, I'm talking to you...) Could it have been the recipe I used?

sad right?

On to less depressing things. My chocolate cake I made turned out fabulously and Jared, my brother, complimented me on it, which rarely happens. He described it as a truffle chocolate cake because of its rich taste and fudge-like frosting (literally the cake wouldn't come to "room-temp" since it's so cold here and the frosting stayed fudge-like...like a piece of fudge).



You can find the recipe here ('Fudgy Chocolate Layer Cake' from Epicurious). I halved it and made a half moon cake. At first I thought it would look silly but I quickly fell in love with the funky shaped cake and think I'll do it again real soon. Who needs twelve servings of cake anyway?

Beware, this cake is RICH...like grab a tall glass of milk and sit down rich. It has espresso in it too so take heed. I subbed espresso from an espresso machine for the instant stuff called for in the recipe since I hate buying instant espresso. It bothers me to see it in my cupboard being unused in between 'Fudgy Chocolate Layer Cake' endeavors.
If you have a chocolate lover in your life you should make this cake and watch them swoon when they take the first bite. Oh and believe me, they will swoon.

my love begins to grow...

I want to start by correcting my last post's comments about "busy feet rushing around" over at the bakeshop. It just isn't true. In fact, it's quite the opposite. When I wrote that I actually had my class in mind and the way we behave in the foreign land. We treat it like the hot side...racing around as fast as possible when, in fact, the baking students travel half the speed and are very calm and collected, while still getting product out. It's very very strange, haha.

On to grander things. Yesterday my group and I made lots of fun things with pate a choux (pronounced patashoo), which is a "pre-cooked batter" that can be manipulated into an enormous amount of goodies, both savory and sweet. From the dough we produced cream puffs, swans (like a cream puff but with the addition of custard and berries), gougeres (cream puffs with cheese) and eclairs. I really enjoyed this day and all the assembly that took place. For some reason piping chantilley (sweetened whipped cream) into a little ball of pate a choux was strangely rewarding. It was also a good day because at the end of the night Chef liked my cream puff the best and set it as the example of what everyone else should have done. Maybe it's because I love cream puffs? Extra love perhaps??
As you can see I'm holding my award winning cream puff with a forced smile. For some reason I lost my knack for being photogenic....maybe it will come back some day.

The BEST day so far had to be today. I knew I had a small obsession with homemade angel food cake but I had NO IDEA I was this obsessed with it. I was the only one in the class to make it and I made it as if my life depended on it. I think Chef was a little weirded out. Before class, after requesting my team make it I told Chef I wanted to eat a whole cake for dinner....maybe that's why he thinks I'm strange. At the end of the night when he was reviewing our stuff he picked up a piece and asked if I was pleased and I said, "Chef, I seriously LOVE my angel food cake." I didn't realize how dumb I sounded until Burroughs repeated it to me after class. It was good alright? Don't tell me you're not wishing you had a piece right now...with those berries...and the chantilley cream...I don't know who could pass that up. Here is the glorious, fairly simple recipe:

ANGEL FOOD CAKE (makes one tube cake)

1 lb. egg white
1 t. vanilla
1/2 lb. sugar
1/8 oz. cream of tartar
1/8 oz. salt
1/2 lb. sugar
6.5 oz. cake flour

1. Combine first the sugar, cream of tartar, salt and vanilla. Add gradually to egg whites after they have whipped to a foam and beat until mixture forms a wet peak (soft peak)
2. Sift second sugar and flour together and carefully told into whites.
3. Pour batter into an 8 in. tube pan.
4. Bake at 325 degrees in a convection oven or 350 in a regular oven for 35-40 minutes or until cake bounces back and is brown.
5. Allow cake to cool before removing from pan

____So I'm sorry about the weight measurements...I don't know how to make them into regular ones. I would say, if you have some extra dough laying around to buy a scale. They're seriously really helpful. Kind of pricey...like $40-$50 I think, but worth it.

I do enjoy the class more now that we're out of bread baking. I don't know what my deal is with breads but I'm glad we're past it and I can just enjoy what others make and appreciate their hard work instead of laboring in frustration myself. Cheers to bread bakers!